A Study of Lead-Acid Battery Efficiency Near Top-of-Charge

and the Impact on PV System Design

John W. Stevens and Garth P. Corey

Sandia National Laboratories, Photovoltaic System Applications Department

Sandia National Laboratories, Battery Analysis and Evaluation Department
PO Box 5800, MS 0753
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-0753

ABSTRACT discharge and PV array size. Hence, a procedure has

Knowledge of the charge efficiency of lead-acid batteries
near top-of-charge is important to the design of small
photovoltaic systems. In order to know how much energy
is required from the photovoltaic array in order to
accomplish the task of meeting load, including periodic
full battery charge, a detailed knowledge of the battery
charging efficiency as a function of state of charge is
required, particularly in the high state-of-charge regime,
as photovoltaic systems are typically designed to operate
in the upper 20 to 30% of battery state-of-charge. This
paper presents the results of a process for determining
battery charging efficiency near top-of-charge and
discusses the impact of these findings on the design of
small PV systems.
BACKGROUND
Batteries are often necessary in photovoltaic (PV)
systems to store energy generated while the sun is
shining. Therefore, it is important to understand the
specific requirements of batteries when designing a PV
system. This includes an understanding of the amount of
energy that will be lost in battery charging.
Overestimating these battery charging losses results in a
larger PV array than required, whereas underestimating
them results in unanticipated loss of load as well as the
possibility of damaging batteries because of lack of
providing a periodic high state-of-charge.
It is generally understood that battery charge
efficiency is high (above 95%) at low states of charge and
that this efficiency drops off near full charge. However,
actual battery charge efficiencies are often stated as
though efficiency is linear across all states of charge, with
general guidance that it drops off at higher states of
charge. Details concerning actual charge efficiency as a
function of state-of-charge (SOC) would be very useful to
PV system designers to allow informed trade-off
decisions involving battery size, battery daily depth of
This work supported by the Photovoltaic Energy
Technology Division of the US Department of Energy
under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
been developed, and is described herein, to acquire these
efficiency versus SOC measurements. Preliminary
results agree with existing general knowledge, and
provide the details of charge efficiency versus state of
charge for the specific battery under test.
Specific charge versus state of charge information is
particularly important for systems where a very large
battery (that is, one designed to normally operate in the
upper 10% or less of state of charge in order to achieve
high load availability) is used. For example, a PV system
for an area light may be designed to allow the light to not
function for a couple of niqhts per year, but a
communication repeater may be only allowed a couple of
hours per year of outage time (often less). One common
method for increasing the availability of PV systems is to
increase the size of the battery. Increasing battery size in
a system implies that the battery will be operating at a
higher average state-of-charge. If a 100 amp-hour (Ah)
battery is used in a system with a 30Ah daily load, then
one would expect the battery to be operating in the 70%
to 100% SOC regime on the average. If this same load
was operated with a 300Ah battery, then the battery
would be expected to operate in the 90% to 100% SOC
regime on the average. Because charge efficiency
decreases with increasing battery state-of-charge, the
system with the larger battery may also need a larger PV
array to account for the higher losses associated with
operating at a higher average SOC. Battery charge
efficiency is also a function of charge rate, with lower
rates resulting in higher efficiencies. The larger battery
will be operating with a lower charge rate, which will
result in higher charge efficiency. A decision on
increased array size must be made with full knowledge of
charge efficiency at the actual charge rate being
employed.
The testing reported on here examined a single
sample of the Trojan 3OXHS battery. This is a 12-volt,
flooded, lead-antimony battery rated 130Ah at the 20
hour rate by the manufacturer. Testing in PV
applications, where charging is rarely in accordance with
manufacturer’s recommendations, indicates that this
battery has a “PV capacity” of about IOOAh, and that is
the value that will be used as this battery’s capacity in
this paper.

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0-7803-3166-4/96/$5.00 0 1996 IEEE 25th PVSC; May 13-17, 1996; Washington, D.C.
 Once this testing has been completed, and the
results have been reviewed, other batteries will be tested
to examine the applicability of these results to other
batteries of both similar and different types.
CHARGE RATE SELECTION
For this initial test sequence, a single charge and
discharge rate was selected. The rate was chosen as one
of many that is typically seen in PV systems. For the
100Ah Trojan 30XHS battery, a charge and discharge
rate of 3.3 amps, or C130, was selected. PV system
batteries will normally have charge rates that vary from
about l/lOth the battery capacity to about 1/50th the
battery capacity, or C/10 to CI50, with discharge rates
varying from about C/10 to C/150. A moderate rate of
C/30 was selected from these ranges, resulting in 3.3
amps. It is important to select a charge and discharge
rate that is similar to that used in PV systems because
these rates will have a significant effect on battery charge
efficiency,
An example demonstrates the origin of these ranges.
Consider a load, including losses, that requires 15Ah per
day from the PV array. In an area of a good solar
resource of 5 kWh/m2/day, also referred to as 5 sun-
hours per day, this energy will be acquired from the array
over the daylight hours, with peak current of 3 amps (15
Amp-hours/5 sun-hours) occurring in the hour around
noon. A typical design might require "5 days storage" for
the batteries. That is, the batteries would be required to
provide 75Ah to the load with no additional solar energy
input. PV systems are typically designed with a "Iow-
voltage-disconnect'' (LVD) to keep the battery from
experiencing 100% discharges. A typical LVD might be
designed to allow 75% discharge. This then implies that
the 75Ah energy storage is 75% of the battery capacity,
so we will be considering a 100Ah battery. Therefore, the
peak charge rate will be 100/3=33, or a charge rate of
C/33 (that is, the charge rate is equal to the battery
capacity divided by 33). A 3 sun-hour per day locale
would require a larger array with a 5 amp peak, resulting
in a peak charge rate of C/20. If the load is a light that is
on all night, the discharge rate will be 15Ahll2hours =
1.25 amp or C/80. If the load remains 15Ah per day, but
is spread over 24 hours per day, the discharge rate will
be C/160.
TEST PROCEDURE
All tests were performed on a Digitron/Firing Circuits
BTS 600 chargeldischarge test unit, which charges with
pure dc (as observed on an oscilloscope.) This test unit
allows programming several test sequences, then
performs the tests while monitoring and logging the test
data. The test equipment and battery are in an air
conditioned room with the room temperature maintained
near 72°F. The battery temperature was monitored and
recorded. Because of the low charge/discharge rate of
the testing (C/30), the battery and room temperatures
remained essentially the same.
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All discharges were to 10.5 volts to ensure
consistency in counting amp-hours. The battery was first
charged and discharged through 10 complete cycles in
order to "form" the battery and ensure consistent results.
Full recharge (as opposed to the partial charges used to
charge the battery with a specific number of Amp-hours)
was performed by bringing the battery voltage to 14.8
volts and then maintaining regulation voltage (14.8 volts)
by tapering the current for 10 hours.
A test procedure was developed to charge the battery
in steps beginning with approximately 65% capacity, then
increasing the input in 8Ah increments until about 100Ah
output is obtained on discharge. The Digitron tester
calculates both amp-hours and watt-hours for each data
point, so both Ah and energy efficiency can be easily
obtained with the same set of test data.
Two types of efficiency are calculated using the test
data. These will be referred to as overall average
efficiency (the efficiency from zero SOC to that SOC
under test) and incremental efficiency (the efficiency
between two non-zero states of charge, for example,
between 80 and 85% SOC). After the initial regime of 10
full chargeldischarge cycles, the battery was charged with
68Ah which was estimated to result in about 65% SOC,
or that would provide about 65Ah on discharge. The
68Ah charge actually resulted in an average discharge of
65.9Ah. After the battery was charged with 68Ah, it was
then discharged to determine the amp-hours available,
and charge efficiency was calculated. This procedure
was repeated several times for each SOC level in the
testing. The amp-hours input was then increased and the
next level of SOC was examined in a similar manner.
RESULTS
The results of this testing are displayed graphically in
Figure 1. Each data point in Figure 1 represents at least
four tests. Some represent more than this, as some tests
were repeated at random to verify repeatable results. The
greatest variance in test results for each step was 5.8%,
with several of the steps resulting in variance in results of
less than 2%. The data is represented as a minimum
value of amp-hours extracted for each charge level, a
maximum value and the average. This graph shows that
the scatter among data is relatively small.
Figure 2 shows the conversion of the amp-hours out
versus amp-hours in to efficiencies. Notice that there are
two curves, one displaying overall efficiency from zero
state of charge to the particular state of charge under
test, and the other showing incremental efficiency
between states of charge. Notice also that the overall
efficiency shows high values, with full charge represented
by approximately 85% efficiency, a commonly used value
for battery charge efficiency. More importantly, notice the
dramatically lower efficiencies for the increments above
about 80% state of charge, where most values are below
60% efficiency, and full charge is represented by less
than 50% efficiency. (Actually, full charge, resulting in
100Ah output has not been reached in the testing to date
The greatest output was 96.5Ah, which resulted from
116Ah input. An attempt to achieve 100Ah output will be
made as part of the conclusion of this testing.)
 loo
90
80
i
-- r
I
i
E
I

70 -- E

60 --
z
3
0

f0 50 --

5
a
40
--

30 --

20 --
l o --
0 1 I 1 I I I I

68 76 84 92 100 108 116

Amp-hours input

Figure 1. Minimum, maximum and average values of test data, showing small scatter in test results.

0.9

0.8

h
0.7
.-
P)

E 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3 I- 65.9
:
72.4 78.8 83.5 88.2 93.2 96.5
Ah Ouput (Also Battery SOC)

Figure 2. Incremental charge efficiency is dramatically less than overall charge efficiency at the higher states of
charge.

Clearly, the use of assumed charge efficiencies in hold up well for other deep-cycle flooded lead-antimony
the range of 80% will not result in a fully charged battery batteries as well.
when this battery is expected to operate in the upper 20%
of it's state of charge. It is expected that these results will

1487
 INTERMEDIATE FULL CHARGE CYCLES
An observation early in the testing required a change
in the test procedure. The original intent had been to
perform several partial charge/discharge cycles in
sequence. For example, charge to 68Ah input, discharge,
then charge to 68Ah input and so on until the four
complete cycles at 68Ah input were complete. Then fully
charge and discharge the battery before proceeding with
the next level. It was seen early in the testing that this
was not going to work, as the capacity resulting from
68Ah input dropped with each succeeding cycle when no
full charge cycles were performed between partial charge
cycles. Therefore a full charge and discharge cycle was
added between each partial chargeldischarge cycle.
This result has important implications to operational
PV systems. That is, if a battery is partially charged for
several consecutive cycles (for example, the array is
marginally sized and there is a series of less than full sun
days in the winter) the useable battery capacity decreases
each cycle, even though the same amount of energy has
been presented to the battery each day. This is the result
of battery inefficiencies, electrolyte stratification, and
sulfate buildup during these partial charges. An
associated full charge, with its attendant gassing, is
needed to destratify the electrolyte and remove the
residual sulfate. This sulfate buildup can become a
problem if this pattern continues for several months. In
the short term it can be reversed by a full "equalizing"
type charge, which, in most cases is not possible in small
PV systems. Battery equalization requires a PV charge
controller that has been specifically designed to include
this function. At low charge rates (for example, less than
C/40) equalization may not be possible because of
charging time limitations. In any case, this reduction in
useable capacity will impact system availability and
should be understood.
FURTHER TESTING
The current set of tests will be completed by decreasing
the input to the battery progressively until a point is found
at which the incremental charge efficiency stabilizes,
implying that this value will prevail throughout the lower
states of charge. During this testing, earlier tests will be
repeated as a check and to investigate the continued
health of the battery (that is, looking for changes in
results that would indicate changing battery health.)
Finally, these testing procedures will be applied to other
batteries to see how common the results are and to
examine variations that may be found.
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A test procedure has been developed to allow the
examination of battery charge efficiency as a function of
battery state of charge. Preliminary results agree well
with established general understanding that the charge
efficiency of flooded lead-antimony batteries declines with
increasing state-of-charge, and that charge efficiency is a
non-linear function of battery state-of-charge. These
tests indicate that from zero SOC to 84% SOC the
average overall battery charging efficiency is 91%, and
that the incremental battery charging efficiency from 79%
to 84% is only 55%. This is particularly significant in PV
systems where the designer expects the batteries to
normally operate at SOC above 80%, with deeper
discharge only occurring during periods of extended bad
weather. In such systems, the low charge efficiency at
high SOC may result in a substantial reduction in actual
available stored energy because nearly half the available
energy is serving losses rather than charging the battery.
Low charging efficiency can then result in the battery
operating at an average SOC significantly lower than the
system designer would anticipate without a detailed
understanding of charge efficiency as a function of SOC.
During normal weather, capacity degradation will not be
evident, but it will manifest itself when the battery is
called on to provide the full purchased capacity, which
will be found to be unavailable. Extended operation in a
low SOC environment can also result in permanent loss
of capacity from sulfation if the battery is operated for
long periods of time without a sufficient recovery or
equalizing charge.
The impact of low charge efficiency at high states of
charge has the greatest potential impact on systems
where high energy availability is needed Such systems
usually utilize large batteries to ensure energy availability
during the longest stretches of bad weather. This may
not provide the energy required if the PV array is
insufficient to provide a recovery charge for batteries at
90% SOC and above, where charge efficiency is very low.
Charge efficiencies at 90% SOC and greater were
measured at less than 50% for the battery tested here,
requiring a PV array that supplies more than twice the
energy that the load consumes for a full recovery charge
Many batteries in PV systems never reach a full state of
charge, resulting in a slow battery capacity loss from
stratification and sulfation over the life of the battery.